Anthropic appears to have overtaken OpenAI in the race for leadership in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. According to reports, Anthropic is considering raising hundreds of billions of dollars this summer to significantly expand its computing capacity, which would push its valuation close to $1 trillion, surpassing that of OpenAI. The latter had just completed a record-breaking $122 billion funding round in March at an $852 billion valuation.
Citing informed sources, the report indicates that with its sustained revenue growth, Anthropic has attracted interest from investors including Dragoneer, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Three sources stated that Anthropic could raise as much as $500 billion in this funding round, with the deal likely to be finalized within two months. However, sources added that while Anthropic's Chief Financial Officer Rao has been in discussions with investors, no terms have been agreed upon yet, and there is no guarantee the transaction will be completed.
Multiple sources revealed that investors are looking to build positions ahead of Anthropic's anticipated initial public offering (IPO) by the end of this year. Although Rao has not formally begun negotiations, existing investors have already requested participation in the allocation. Given the massive scale of the funding and the company's IPO plans, Anthropic may prioritize institutional investors with experience in both public and private investments.
Annualized revenue has surged dramatically, fueling a rapid rise in valuation. Last month, Anthropic announced that its annualized run rate (ARR) exceeded $300 billion, a substantial increase from the $90 billion reported at the end of 2025. Meanwhile, third-party research firm Semi Analysis reported in early May that Anthropic's ARR had climbed to approximately $440 billion. This growth rate significantly outpaces that of OpenAI during the same period.
Anthropic's explosive performance growth is largely attributed to the popularity of its Claude AI model. Last month, the company noted that demand for Claude had led to "inevitable infrastructure strain," affecting the "stability and performance" of the user experience, particularly during peak hours. This surge in demand and computing constraints have prompted Anthropic to proactively secure partnerships or deepen collaborations with entities like SpaceX, Google Cloud, and Amazon.com (AMZN.US) to access additional computational resources.
The spike in demand for Claude has become a "sweet burden" for Anthropic. CEO Amodei stated on Wednesday that while the company had planned for tenfold growth, first-quarter revenue and usage surged 80-fold on an annualized basis, explaining why it has struggled to meet demand. He described the current growth level as "simply insane" and "difficult to manage," expressing hope that future expansion would be "more normal."
Anthropic's competitive edge in the enterprise market underpins its rapid growth. Enterprise customers contribute over 80% of its revenue, with eight of the top ten Fortune companies being steady clients. The number of clients paying over $1 million annually has surpassed 1,000, doubling from previous figures. Notably, the Claude Code programming assistant alone has reached nearly $25 billion in ARR, a more than fivefold increase from $4 billion in mid-2025, with enterprise usage accounting for over half of Claude Code's revenue. This indicates that Claude Code is evolving beyond a mere coding tool into a serious enterprise software solution involving budget, permissions, auditing, and organizational management.
For upstream operations, the key shift is that demand is becoming more sustained and reliant on stable delivery, rather than spiking only during model releases. Early 2026 enterprise spending data shows that among companies making their first AI tool purchases, Anthropic captured 73% of the market, surpassing OpenAI in market share.
Anthropic's advantage in the enterprise market is closely tied to its "safety-first" product positioning. As a leading AI model developer focused on AI safety and alignment, Anthropic's models demonstrate superior compliance and accuracy compared to peers, leading to rapid adoption in heavily regulated sectors like finance, law, and healthcare.
Backed by rapid growth, Anthropic's valuation trajectory is equally impressive. Its Series F round in September 2025 valued the company at $183 billion, which jumped over 107% to $380 billion in the Series G round by February 2026. Previous reports indicated a target valuation of $900 billion, but the latest figures suggest it is now approaching $1 trillion. Notably, recent pre-IPO transaction data on secondary markets imply an instantaneous valuation spike to $1.2 trillion. If Anthropic completes its IPO at this valuation, it would immediately rank as the world's 11th largest publicly traded company, creating a new commercial legend.
As Anthropic's main competitor, OpenAI also plans to launch an IPO in the second half of 2026. However, a lawsuit filed by Musk against OpenAI, its CEO Altman, and co-founder Brockman is complicating its IPO preparations. Altman and Brockman are key drivers of OpenAI's funding and strategic partnerships. A victory for Musk could lead to management changes or structural overhauls at OpenAI, potentially delaying the IPO and constraining its funding and expansion.
Additionally, OpenAI's failure to meet internal user growth and sales targets has raised concerns about its commercial sustainability. Coupled with its weaker competitiveness against Anthropic in the enterprise market, some investors are questioning its high valuation, which could pose obstacles to its public listing.
Despite its strengths, analyses based on pre-IPO disclosure information highlight three significant risks in Anthropic's growth narrative that may lead investors to challenge its high valuation.
First, customer concentration remains a structural risk. Although Anthropic serves over 300,000 enterprise clients, revenue is highly concentrated among top customers. Beyond Amazon.com and Alphabet (GOOG.US), which contribute over 20% of revenue, its business model is deeply integrated with cloud platforms. Anthropic has committed to up to $30 billion in Azure compute purchases from Microsoft (MSFT.US), over $100 billion in AWS compute from Amazon.com over the next decade, and secured up to $40 billion in investment plus 5 gigawatts of TPU capacity from Alphabet. While these long-term agreements come with substantial equity investments and reciprocal benefits, price hikes or supply disruptions from core cloud providers could impact its profit margins. On the revenue side, if major clients reduce purchases, develop in-house models, or support competitors, it would directly affect revenue stability.
Second, Anthropic's unique governance structure may concern investors. Organized as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), its core governance mechanism is the Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT), which holds special Class T shares with the power to elect a majority of the board. Even after going public, strategic decisions will prioritize "humanity's long-term benefit" over shareholder returns. While this design offers regulatory advantages amid increasing AI scrutiny, public market investors may view it as a "mission discount"—the trust's veto power over certain business decisions could subordinate profits to ethical considerations, limiting investors' voting and economic rights. Balancing the trust's mission with shareholder interests will be a core challenge for Anthropic.
Finally, excessive valuation premiums place immense pressure on Anthropic to deliver on its performance. Based on a target valuation of $900 billion and an ARR of approximately $440 billion, its price-to-sales ratio is about 20x, well above the SaaS industry average of 8-12x. To justify its current valuation, Anthropic needs to achieve targets of $700 billion in revenue and $170 billion in cash flow by 2028, requiring at least 50% annual growth over the next three years alongside continuous margin improvement. Although Semi Analysis reports that Anthropic's inference infrastructure gross margin has improved from around 38% twelve months ago to over 70%, indicating better unit economics, persistently high costs for model training and inference, combined with price competition from rivals like OpenAI and Google's Gemini, make achieving these targets challenging.
In summary, transitioning from a challenger to a true rival capable of competing head-to-head with OpenAI requires Anthropic to overcome hurdles in ecosystem development, cost control, and expansion into the consumer market. The success of its IPO will largely depend on whether investors are willing to pay a premium for its "safety-first" differentiation and unique governance structure. Even if it goes public successfully, maintaining technological leadership and increasing market share in an industry where model iterations occur in less than 12 months will remain key focus areas for the market.
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